Licensing quality music or having a composer create a powerful score is a key element to making your films and videos successful. Filmstro is an app that combines the two and shows us the future of music licensing today.
If you want quality music on your films you have the two options mentioned above: licensing quality music or hiring a capable composer to score your images. Both come with some advantages and disadvantages.
Musicbed for example has become a prime resource for quality licensed tracks. In their database it is easy to find music that matches certain moods and styles. Such licensed existing tracks can be an affordable route to quality music and they can inspire your edit, but they can also limit you when the track doesn’t perfectly fit your edit. I sometimes spend a whole day just searching for the right song and more often than not I can’t find it, because I have a too particular requirement.
On the other side a good composer can create perfect music that suits your project, but this can be costly and working with a composer means communicating your goals accurately which can also be a time-consuming task, let alone finding the right collaborator for your project.
Filmstro is a new app that puts you in the seat of the composer, to save time and get you quality music at affordable licensing rates. The idea is very simple. You download the app and a large database of sounds and with a simple and intuitive interface you can very easily and quickly create tracks that perfectly fit the mood and style of your edit. That’s the basic concept behind Filmstro Pro.
Testing Filmstro Pro
The makers of Filmstro let us use a beta version of their new app. I was immediately convinced by the concept and very positively surprised about the quality of music the app generates and the simplicity with which I could manipulate the songs.
Right now Filmstro Pro is a standalone app that lets you import your finished film. You then need to apply one of numerous tracks, sorted by moods/genre. With the three sliders on the left hand side you can control momentum, depth and power of the song. While you play your film you can basically control these sliders in real-time and the music will change accordingly. You can later go back and change the timing and intensity manually.
Right now there’s an assortment of different moods like “slomo”, adventure, action, romance, thriller, documentary and several others. Many times I thought the music has a really professional, realistic sound and I really enjoyed the modern style. I can see myself using this app for many of my future projects, be it ads, corporate films or even scoring whole features.
For me as a filmmaker and media creator there is no question about it that this app has a bright future. I’ve never seen something like this before and I’m convinced it will change the way we think about using music on our films. The Filmstro app is still at the beginning with many more options to explore. For me the app could be more complex and I’d love to see even more sounds, variations and tracks integrated. For many though I think the simplicity will be exactly what they need right now.
Once this app will expand and become integrated directly into an editing suite (plugin is planned for 2016) I can see an endless potential here. Right now Filmstro is exporting as .m4a but will be switching to high quality .Wav after Christmas.
For me as a filmmaker sound and music is so important. What better could happen to run-and-gun full-production shooters than an app like Filmstro Pro?!
Cost?
Right now Filmstro can be download as a free beta version. Filmstro Pro offers more sounds and music and comes with a $19.99 monthly membership. This includes using any music from the app for your personal protional videos (like showreels) and NGO non-profit stuff. On commercial projects they have different licensing options ranging from $99 for corporate projects (per track) up to several thousand $ when you use the app to score a whole feature film. Check out their licensing plans in detail here.
Use coupon code: CINEMA5D to get 1 month free.
For more information on this app go to filmstro.com
If you try the app please come back here and let us know what you think in the comment section.